Mastering In London

[Beermaster]

Stupid Question but I'm working on an album project for a client over here and they want the final finished masters (on a PMCD format, with ISRC code embedded on each track - whatever that means ? ) Can anyone recomend a good place to have this done ( I've never had to do this myself before so a bit in the dark as to who's good an how much to expect to pay )

Thanks in advance !

Beer

[streaky]

It depends whether you want them to also do the mastering on the album (obviously!) Prices for PMCD vary all over the place depending on what's required at the same time. If you have a finished CD that you need encoding, it won't cost you much. If you need the CD mastered and/or compiled it's going to cost more, maybe a LOT more...!

Feel free to PM if you need any more info

[brethes@mac.com]

Originally Posted by Beermaster

Stupid Question but I'm working on an album project for a client over here and they want the final finished masters (on a PMCD format, with ISRC code embedded on each track - whatever that means ? ) Can anyone recomend a good place to have this done ( I've never had to do this myself before so a bit in the dark as to who's good an how much to expect to pay )

Thanks in advance !

Beer

A PMCD (Pre-Master CD, also called PQ CD in the UK) is the high-grade Red Book Standard CDR containing all the relevant codes that is required by a pressing plant for replication. If you are not pressing a record but need the ISRC codes (see: Welcome to PPL) included in the tracks for Internet ditribution (selling the tracks through iTunes for example), you still need a PMCD as the ISRC codes have to be embedded on the Master as a Metadata.

The price for mastering a whole album including the PMCD Master and CD Listening Copy (the copy you can handle) varies quite a lot depending on the name of the facility and or the notoriety of the Mastering Engineer. It can cost from a few hundred pounds to a few thousands.

While the top end of these prices will generally guarantee a good results, you can get also top quality using some of the cheaper places provided you do a little bit of research first into the track record of the engineer likely to do the job: how many years experience, quality of the records mastered, how good the communication (very important when the client has a precise idea of the results expected), or by seeking recommendations from existing clients. This is more important than looking at lists of equipment as it is the experience and the ears of the mastering engineer that matters, not what kind of tools he.she uses...